In light of Radamel Falcao’s $9 million loan move to Manchester United on Monday, the player’s father has stepped forward to shed some light on what clubs were fighting for his son on deadline day.

As it turns out Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Juventus all had interest in signing Falcao while Real Madrid – the club most pundits believed the Colombian striker was headed – apparently removed themselves from contention due to financial reasons.

“The clubs that showed an interest in him were Juventus, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal at the last minute,” Radamel Garcia told the Colombian radio station LA FM. “Fortunately, he has arrived to Manchester United, a great club. Thank God everything came through with United.”

In the eyes of Garcia, Manchester United is the most important club in England and the place where his son will bring titles to. “Radamel is a person who has given a lot in Europe and has always deserved the best for all the effort, all the sacrifices he has made during his football career. United is the most important team in England and one of the most powerful from an economic standpoint. Now it’s his turn to give his best, to be ready and continue to win titles.”

As to Falcao’s proposed move to the Estadio Bernebeu, Garcia explained: “The deal with Real Madrid did not happen because if you have money and you go to the market to buy a shirt or a pair of trousers, you have to decide whether to buy it or not. Real Madrid chose not to. I don’t know, I have the feeling they wanted the player for free with a number of conditions. In any case, they bought the trousers and shirt they wanted and they considered that to be better. We have to accept it.”

The 28-year-old striker joins Manchester United after completing a nine month rehabilitation program following surgery to repair knee ligament damage suffered in January when he was with Monaco. Before injury struck Falcao had tallied 11 goals in 20 appearances for the Ligue 1 side just one season after registering 34 goals across all competitions for Atletico Madrid.

Not to mention unproven in the English game. If pressed I would put money on him being able to handle the Prem, but there is always that chance that a player just cannot adapt or cope with the increased pace and physicality.

I guess you could say they felt desperate. Much is expected of them and they expect much of themselves. Liverpool haven’t won the League in over 25 years. Arsenal have only an FA Cup to show in the last ten. Meanwhile there have been thousands of stories written over a single poor United year. They will do what they have to do to get back to the top as quickly as possible. If it takes a bit of risk, then so be it. While Arsenal fans have been dying for a world class centre forward even before Giroud’s injury, the best they come up with is Danny Welbeck and their fans are left to make more “Wenger is hiding all that Arsenal money in his puffy jacket”.

The only thing United risked is a year’s worth of wages that they can afford. They may or may not keep him permanently, but I believe they will. Responding to Ian’s Rushtache … I can only assume you’ve never seen Falcao play to question him coping with the league’s “pace and physicality”. That’s fine, many people haven’t. You will soon enough. Remember that this was the same player who didn’t allow the beast that is Diego Costa get off the pine at Atletico. That’s how good he is.

Should be a very interesting year in the BPL. No matter who you root for, I hope your squad stays healthy and may the best team win. I doubt United will be in the running this year, but even the trolls who come out of the woodwork whenever a United article is posted know that this will be the last year it will even be a question.

The knee surgery and potentially struggling to adapt are two big knocks on the loan. However, I don’t agree about the fee being crazy…

Even if he is fully recovered from his surgery and adapts well to the English game, Falcao probably only has 2-4 years left as a top Premier League caliber striker, given his style of play. Eating up one of those years for £6 million actually seems to be a steal in today’s market, coming out to a valuation of ~£30 million. Compare that to the money being bandied about for other strikers and the risk doesn’t seem so crazy to me, at least compared to my initial OMG reaction.

Now, his salary, on the other hand, is definitely ridiculous (thanks Monaco!). However, I suspect United can safely eat it for a year without much worry.

I’m not saying Falcao is the right transfer (I have my doubts), but heck, Remy moved for £10.5 million with (estimated) 40% of the wages, and, given the math, I’d rather have Falcao than Remy at 35-40%. I think there’s really just a big cost to buying decent strikers in their prime years and, in that context, the fee doesn’t seem that crazy to me.

And yeah, I’ve been wanting to mention this somewhere since the transfer… it’s not really aimed at you or anything, just me rambling via the Internet. 😀